Capitals 4, Bruins 1

Posted By
Mike Petraglia
On
September 29, 2010 @ 10:35 pm
In
General |
3 Comments

And finally, it’s off to Europe.

The 24 hours leading up to Wednesday night’s red-eye, 5 1/2-hour flight to Belfast, couldn’t have been more hectic for the Bruins.

They played Tuesday night in Washington and lost to the Capitals, 3-2, in a tense game that featured third-period rough-housing between Gregory Campbell[1] and Alexander Ovechkin.

They hopped on a plane and had to come to Boston for the team’s annual media day Wednesday morning.

They then went home to finish up packing for a 12-day trip to Europe and came back to play the same Capitals team at TD Garden.

So it was hardly a surprise that in their final North American preseason tuneup before getting on a plane for Belfast, Ireland and their season opener on Oct. 9 in Prague, the Bruins dropped a 4-1 decision to the Capitals.

Tim Thomas[2] saw his first action of the preseason and played all 60 minutes, allowing four goals on 24 shots. Niklas Backstrom scored the first two goals before the Capitals built their lead to 4-0 early in the third period.

Mark Recchi[3] scored his first of the preseason midway through the third on a power play, with assists from Patrice Bergeron[4] and Michael Ryder[5]. The Bruins left immediately after the game for Logan Airport, where they caught a charter flight to Belfast. They will play an elite area team in Ireland on Oct. 3 before opening with the Phoenix Coyotes[6] in a pair of games Oct. 9 and 10.

The Bruins finished their NHL[7] portion of preseason with a 1-3-1 mark, while the Capitals, who did not travel superstar Alexander Ovechkin to Boston, remained perfect at 4-0-0 in preseason.